Late last month, an oil tanker measuring three football fields long and six stories high moved slowly through the port of Corpus Christi, to test the waters of America's booming crude-export industry.

After navigating Aransas Pass around 7 a.m. on May 26, the vessel, Euronav NV's Anne, didn't pick up any oil. But its arrival in the humid air of South Texas marked the first time a tanker of that size had called on a U.S. terminal in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Anne docked at Occidental Petroleum Corp.'s terminal to determine if some of the world's biggest carriers could start ferrying oil from Texas to foreign buyers. The shipping upgrade is necessary after a surge in production from U.S. shale fields like the Permian Basin brought more oil than Gulf Coast refiners could handle. And Corpus Christi is vying to become America's main export hub.

Oil Exports, Illegal for Decades, Now Fuel a Texas Port BoomCrude from West Texas shale fields is increasingly making its way abroadas a pipeline system is expanded to take it to market through Corpus Christi.

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS, JULY 5, 2017, The New York Times

CORPUS CHRISTI, Tex. — In a twist that would have been unthinkable only two years ago, the oil tanker that arrives in China today may be carrying crude that left the South Texas port of Corpus Christi instead of Saudi Arabia.

Chinese drivers most certainly don’t care where their fuel comes from, but the export of American crude oil to dozens of countries over the last year is the latest chapter in a remarkable turnaround for the American oil and gas industry, about the only good news in three years of plummeting commodity prices, bankruptcies and layoffs........